Beatles News
While many musicians — from Queen to Johnny Cash — have gotten the biopic treatment, doing a movie about The Beatles was once believed to be a near impossibility. The life and music rights have long been considered far too expensive for any filmmaker to attempt a Beatles biography onscreen. But in 2028 the Beatles are getting not one but four feature films planned via Sony Pictures.
Sam Mendes (Skyfall, 1917) is directing the movies, each one focused on a different band member, that will star Paul Mescal as Paul McCartney, Harris Dickinson as John Lennon, Joseph Quinn as George Harrison, and Barry Keoghan as Ringo Starr. Said Mendes of the ambitious project at Sony’s 2025 CinemaCon presentation, “We need big cinematic events to get people out of the house.”
Here is what we know so far about the Beatles movies. When Will the ‘Beatles’ Movies Be Released?
All four Beatles films are set for theatrical release in April 2028. “You have to match the boldness of the idea with a bold release strategy,” Sony Pictures CEO Tom Rothman told The Hollywood Reporter in 2024 about the films. “There hasn’t been an enterprise like this before, and you can’t think about it in traditional releasing terms.” He told Mendes the films would be “the first binge-able theatrical experience.”
It is unclear what the exact dates for release are and in what order the films will hit theaters. Who Is Playing Paul, John, George and Ringo?
Paul Mescal will play Paul McCartney. Mescal broke out in Hulu’s Sally Rooney series Normal People before going on to an Oscar-nominated role in the drama feature Aftersun and blockbuster Gladiator II. Harris Dickinson, a film festival favorite whose credits include the A24 movie Babygirl, will play John Lennon. Joseph Quinn has been cast as George Harrison after landing roles in the Netflix series Stranger Things and Marvel Cinematic Universe as The Fantastic Four character Johnny Storm. Oscar nominee Barry Keoghan, known for features like Saltburn and The Banshees of Inisherin, will play Ringo Starr.
Source: hollywoodreporter.com/Mia Galuppo
Opening this week is “One to One: John & Yoko,” a film about the only full concert that John Lennon gave once he left the Beatles. Directed by Kevin Macdonald (Sam Rice-Edwards receives a co-director credit), it features restored footage of that August 30, 1972, concert in New York City, as well as a meticulous recreation of the West Village apartment Lennon and Yoko Ono shared when they moved to Manhattan in 1971.
Please don’t be offended by my opening question. I think it’s refreshing that there’s fare for those outside movie theaters’ most desired market of 12-34 year olds. I’m sure there are discerning people in that age bracket who would enjoy the aforementioned movies, just as I’m sure there are older folks who enjoyed “A Minecraft Movie.”
But let’s be real here. To fully enjoy these movies, I think you had to be there when their events occurred. Watching the footage, I got the sense I was missing out big time because I lacked the nostalgia factor.
So, the rest of this review has been rated NC-55. If you’re under 55, please leave now. Don’t worry, I’m coming with you, because I am not old enough to read my own review.
Source: bostonglobe.com/Yvonne Abraham
In the early months of 1966, whenever Paul McCartney sat down at a piano, wherever it was, he would start tinkering with a song he called “Miss Daisy Hawkins.” From the moment he found its first five syllabic notes, the song seems to have found its themes: loneliness, futility, the end of life. McCartney was twenty-three. Without discussing it, both John Lennon and Paul came back from their break with songs about death, written from a detached, omniscient perspective.
In “Tomorrow Never Knows” John dispenses instruction from the mountaintop. In two minutes, “Eleanor Rigby” captures the entire lives of two individuals in a series of stark images. Musically, both songs are stripped down to a few parts in order to distill and intensify some essence. “Eleanor Rigby” confines itself to a narrow melodic range and the song has minimal harmonic development: like “Tomorrow Never Knows,” it alternates between just two chords.
Set in a minor key, its tightly wound, almost claustrophobic verse plays out over an accompaniment—a string section arranged by George Martin—that sticks close to the tonic, except when the cellos burst into a galloping run up the scale. This section is joined to a refrain in which the singer asks where all the lonely people come from while the cellos play a Bach-style descending line. Paul is joined by John and George for a second refrain—“Ah, look at all the lonely people”—in which the melody soars up before tailing off. In the final section, the two refrains come together in contrapuntal harmony. The mood throughout is tense and austere.
Source: lithub.com/Ian Leslie
George Harrison never wanted to work with one Beatle again but said it 'wasn't personal'
The Beatles officially broke up in 1970 after Paul McCartney announced he was leaving the band and it seems tensions remained between him and George Harrison
When Paul McCartney announced his decision to quit The Beatles, it caused a lot of tension with his former bandmates.
The singer-songwriter, now 82, stepped away from The Beatles in 1970 and the group disbanded, with John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr turning their backs on Paul. John aired his frustration at his former friend in songs such as How Do You Sleep?.
Ringo also took aim at Paul with the track Back Off Boogaloo in which he called him a "meathead." As for George, he largely kept his opinions out of the spotlight until a press conference for his 1974 solo tour.
George had fueled rumors of a Beatles reunion when he covered a number of Beatles song in his set. In response, he was asked about the band during the press conference.
Source: themirror.com/Scarlett O'Toole
It’s 1964. The Beatles are the biggest band on Earth, Beatlemania is boiling over, and they’re about to make their movie debut. The soundtrack? An all-original album that opens with the most iconic chord in pop history. A Hard Day’s Night isn’t just a soundtrack—it’s a musical coming-of-age, a Lennon–McCartney songwriting masterclass, and a cultural time capsule all in one. But did you know these five behind-the-scenes nuggets? Prepare to “ooh!” and “yeah yeah yeah!”
1. The Opening Chord Has a Fan Club of Its Own (And a Math Professor Too)
The jarring, jangling, electrifying Fadd9 chord that opens “A Hard Day’s Night” has been analyzed by everyone from musicologists to mathematicians. George Harrison played it on a Rickenbacker 12-string, while George Martin added piano notes, Paul plucked a high bass note, and Ringo chimed in with subtle percussion.
One math professor even used Fourier transforms to break it down—basically turning rock history into rocket science. No chord has ever launched a film, an album, and a frenzy quite like this.
2. Ringo Starr Accidentally Named the Movie, the Album, and the Hit Single
After a particularly grueling day of filming and gigging, Ringo muttered, “It’s been a hard day’s night”—a classic Ringo-ism. Everyone laughed, but the phrase stuck. It became the movie title, the album name, and the chorus to a chart-topping hit that Lennon wrote overnight. That’s right: one tired drummer gave birth to a cultural phenomenon, proving once again that sometimes genius sounds like gibberish at first.
3. “Can’t Buy Me Love” Was Recorded in Paris—And Nearly Had Harmonies
The Beatles were holed up in a luxurious Paris hotel when Paul McCartney wrote “Can’t Buy Me Love.” It was one of the few Beatles songs recorded outside the U.K.—tracked at Pathé Marconi Studios. The first take actually had background harmonies, but the band scrapped them after one listen. The stripped-down version made history as the first single without their signature vocal blend—ironic for a band known for harmony, huh?
Source: thatericalper.com/Eric Alper
The Beatles grew impressively as songwriters in the relatively short time that they recorded together. They generally stayed ahead of the curve when it came to using storytelling techniques that set their songs apart from their peers. One way that they were able to accomplish this was by occasionally springing a bit of a surprise on their listeners with a little twist to the story at the song’s end. Check out the following four examples of unexpected endings to songs by The Beatles to see what we mean.
“Drive My Car” from ‘Rubber Soul’ (1965)
The story goes that Paul McCartney brought an early version of this Rubber Soul opening track to John Lennon. Lennon rejected it on the basis that the lyrics, about diamond rings, sounded trite. Hence, McCartney went back to the drawing board. He came up with a story that works at face value if that’s the way you want to take it. A guy, needing some financial assistance, acts as a driver for a high-toned miss. Late in the song, however, he finds that the woman doesn’t quite have the assets that she promised him. You could also read this song as one giant metaphor about shifting power dynamics in a sexual relationship. In any case, the reversal of fortune at the end of “Drive My Car” adds a little bite to the story.
Source: americansongwriter.com/Jim Beviglia
The Who has parted ways with its longtime drummer Zak Starkey. PEOPLE can confirm that he has split from the band
Starkey was with the band for 29 years. Zak Starkey is no longer with The Who.
PEOPLE can confirm that the drummer, 59, who is the son of The Beatles drummer Sir Ringo Starr and his first wife Maureen Starkey, has parted ways with the rock band after nearly 29 years.
"I’m very proud of my near 30 years with The Who," Starkey tells PEOPLE in a statement on Wednesday, April 16. "Filling the shoes of my Godfather, 'uncle Keith' has been the biggest honor and I remain their biggest fan. They’ve been like family to me."
He added: "In January, I suffered a serious medical emergency with blood clots in my right bass drum calf. This is now completely healed and does not affect my drumming or running."
"After playing those songs with the band for so many decades, I’m surprised and saddened anyone would have an issue with my performance that night, but what can you do?" Starkey added, appearing to reference a Metro report where Roger Daltrey had repeatedly said he was struggling to hear over the drums during The Who's Royal Albert Hall show last month. "I plan to take some much needed time off with my family, and focus on the release of ‘Domino Bones’ by Mantra Of The Cosmos with Noel Gallagher in May and finishing my autobiography written solely by me. 29 years at any job is a good old run, and I wish them the best."
Source: people.com/Ilana Kaplan
Music icon George Harrison said he was fine with Patti Boyd leaving him for Eric Clapton. It was the Cream guitarist who "had the problem."
The cracks between The Beatles' guitarist and his first wife had been forming for years. They had fallen in love on the set of the Fab Four's A Hard Day's Night, did everything together “as though they were a single entity," had bonded over spirituality throughout the late 1960s, and gotten through The Beatles highly public split.
However, eventually after receiving some love letters and other advances, Boyd couldn't help her attraction to Clapton anymore. Since she and Harrison had been growing apart for awhile, Harrison didn't think it was such a big deal that Boyd wanted to divorce him and begin a relationship with his close friend.
In a 1977 interview, Crawdaddy asked Harrison about his thoughts on Boyd being the inspiration of Clapton's hit song Layla while he was still married to her: "I remember him saying he was dedicating Layla to some mystery woman. Did you know what was happening?"
Source: themirror.com/Hannah Furnell
George Harrison might have had the moniker of the “Quiet Beatle,” but that doesn’t mean he didn’t speak up whenever he felt it was necessary, including turning rants into songs. Although Harrison’s songwriting contributions to the Beatles paled in comparison to John Lennon and Paul McCartney (much to Harrison’s chagrin), a handful of Harrison rants did make their way into the Fab Four catalogue.
Other emotional songs, many of which were directed at his former bandmates and business associates, came later in Harrison’s solo career, unhindered by commandeering co-workers.
“Taxman”
George Harrison might not have had as many songwriting credits to his Beatles legacy as John Lennon and Paul McCartney, but their 1966 album Revolver opened with one of his more fiery songs: “Taxman.” As Harrison recalled in Anthology, “I had discovered I was paying a huge amount of money to the taxman. You are so happy that you’ve finally started earning money. Then you find out about tax. In those days, we paid 19 shillings and sixpence out of every pound, and with supertax and surtax and tax-tax, it was ridiculous.”
Source: americansongwriter.com/Melanie Davis
“Anyone who is one of the best in his field, as [Bob] Dylan is, is bound to influence people,” John Lennon told Melody Maker in 1965. Lennon had revealed one of his biggest influences who helped shift his songwriting style and the Beatles’ sound. By 1964, Bob Dylan‘s influence on the Beatles was evident as they began transitioning from pop songs to more introspective songwriting. Traces of Dylan were drawn on Beatles for Sale and Help! and even earlier on the A Hard Day’s Night track “I Should Have Known Better,” which Lennon directly linked to Dylan.
Originally, “A Hard Day’s Night” was also more in the vein of Dylan before it became more of a Beatles pop song. “But later we Beatle-fied it before we recorded it,” Lennon added.
As the band continued pivoting on Rubber Soul, along with more experimentation with instrumentation and in their storytelling, which continued on through the more psychedelic tones of Revolver and Abbey Road, Dylan’s influence was still apparent.
“That’s me in my Dylan period again,” Lennon proudly said when discussing the band’s “I’m a Loser” from Beatles for Sale and Help! track “You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away.” He continued, “I am like a chameleon, influenced by whatever is going on.
Source: americansongwriter.com/Tina Benitez-Eves
